THE ANNOUNCEMENT about Port Angeles' No. 5 ranking in the top 10 list from the folks at Livability.com:

Congratulations! Port Angeles, Wash., has been named a Top 10 Small Town, 2014 by Livability.com, a national website that ranks quality of life and travel amenities of America's small to mid-sized cities.

For this list of cities, editors analyzed more data on micropolitan areas than ever before.

Using metrics from Esri, they started by looking at cities with populations under 20,000.

Then they dug into statistics like cost of living, health-care spending, racial and socioeconomic diversity, adult obesity, crime, civic engagement, air quality and natural amenities, just to name a few of the 41 data points.

After narrowing down the list, editors conducted a visual assessment of the cities and found out what visitors had to say about them and what residents liked about living there.

“Throughout the U.S., we're seeing a resurgence of emphasis on downtowns in cities of all sizes,” says Livability.com Editor Matt Carmichael.

“It's nice to see in the big cities, certainly, but it's especially great to see these smaller towns not just holding their own, but also thriving.”

Why Port Angeles?

Port Angeles' highly ranked natural amenities, low food costs, low crime and high community involvement help make the city one of the nation's best places to live, especially for crab lovers.

Sculptures, murals and other artwork found downtown help tie modern-day Port Angeles to its past as an outpost in the Pacific Northwest.

With places such as Olympic National Park, it's easy to see that residents of this small town have plenty of choices when it comes to having fun and getting exercise.

Again, congratulations on making the Livability.com list of Top 10 Small Towns, 2014!